More Paint and Elbow Grease

Thursday, October 18, 2012

I am continuing to work on my family room transformation (see my plans here). The project that I relish the least is painting the bookshelves, so I'm making myself do it before I can buy fabric for the curtains. It's sort of a vegetables before cookies kind of thing.

 I got through several steps yesterday.

 1. empty the bookshelves.


 2. Vacuum up the amazing gravity defying dog hair that was all over the back of said bookshelves.

 3. Get a diet coke.

 4. Drag bookshelves into the kitchen. I have a devious master plan that by painting in the kitchen I will get paint on the floor thus speeding the day when we will rip up the linoleum and paint the wood underneath. And then I will take over the tri-state area. Evil laugh.....

 5. Roll on the first coat of white latex enamel paint.

 6. Watch the new episode of Modern Family and dream about how I have eight more years until massive world travel ensues. Believe Phil and Claire have made a grave mistake. (Don't judge; surely you know I adore my smalls)

 7. Finish rolling on second coat of paint just in time to go pick up Ellie.

 I didn't paint the backs because I'm going fore a look like this:
Via

 I work today and Book club is at my house tonight so I won't get a chance to finish until tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.

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Up-cycle Fabric Pumpkins DIY

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

You've noticed, of course, the beautiful plush fabric pumpkins featured all over blogland, yes? Me too! And I want some!

Via
Turns out you can buy a set of three of these lovelies for $107. Well, you can maybe; I can't. But as I've said before, all things can be overcome with diligent obsessing!

 So I started perusing google for how to make fabric pumpkins and when I found this picture, from this blog I knew I'd found my inspiration.
Via
 Jamie, from "Scrap-bags" gives some fine instructions for making your own pumpkins, and when I saw her adorable vintage gourds I realized I could up-cycle some old clothes and  get me some fall fabulousness...for freeee! 

I started with an old shirt of Katie's and a dress that Maddie wore when she was little.
I followed Jamie's instructions and cut various rectangles that were twice as long as they were wide, so that when I folded one in half, it made a perfect(ish) square.
Next you put right sides together and sew the side opposite the fold closed.
From there it's a simple matter to gather one side with a running stitch, stuff that little guy, and then gather up the open end with another running stitch.
One more time,  click here for some really detailed, great directions. The final step is to wrap your darling squash with yarn or embroidery thread to make the pumpkin sections.
Oh wait,the final final step is to pretend your pretty pumpkins are America's Next Top Models and do a photo shoot... 

Look at these baby ones! I love them. 


This project was super fun and I got all of these done in a couple of hours in one evening. If you decide to make some, leave a link in the comments so we can all ooh and ahh. Happy Fall!

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Hooray For One Dish Dinners

Wednesday, October 10, 2012


This is a recipe that my friend, Rene, gave to me when I asked if she had any "one dish wonders" to feed a crowd. Because honestly, one 14 year old boy is a crowd.


It is so good, and looks and smells heavenly. The red sauce and the green spinach make it look really appealing. I love a dish that has the vegetable cooked right in! Add a salad and bread and whoot you're done!

Today I actually doubled the recipe. I have a 9x12 in my fridge for tonight, and two 9 inch pans ready to take to a friend. I feel so productive.

Baked Ziti with Spinach and Sausage


Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
--
Cook Time:
50 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

  • Salt
  • 1 pound ziti
  • 1 pound hot Italian turkey sausage, casing removed
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 6 ounces pesto
  • 15 ounces ricotta cheese
  • 1 (9-ounce) package washed spinach
  • Butter, for baking dish
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella, plus more for topping
  • 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan, plus more for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add ziti and cook until al dente. Drain in a colander.
In a large skillet over medium heat, saute turkey sausage. Add onion and garlic and saute until the sausage is cooked through. Use your spoon to break up the sausage while it cooks. Add the can of diced tomatoes and pesto and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan and mozzarella to a large bowl, and stir to combine.
Butter a 4-quart baking dish, add the cooked pasta, then sausage mixture and cheese mixture. Top with a sprinkling of mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake until completely heated through and golden and crisp on top, about 20 minutes.

Here is a link to the recipe on the Food Network where Rene's husband first found it.

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The Elusive Weekend Away Finally Happens

Monday, October 8, 2012

Our plans for the weekend shifted suddenly and we found ourselves on Friday night with a fairly open couple of days in front of us. We love General Conference, but the chance to get away almost never presents itself, and we decided to take a fly by the seat of our pants trip up the coast to see the California Giant Redwoods.

 Okay, really Marc and the kids wanted to take this trip. I, in my hate for all plan changing ways, wanted to stay home and paint my bookshelves and clean my bathrooms and maybe get out some Halloween decorations. But whatever. I got over it and I'm glad I did.

 The drive was actually a lot of fun. On Saturday morning we just threw a ton of sleeping bags in the car and took off. We laughed and sang and talked, it was really nice to be smooshed all together in our new non-mini-van. We pulled into a camp ground around 2pm and decided to splurge on a $50 cabin since we didn't have our tent.


 We ate sausage and hot dogs and s'mores.

Every tiny little rest stop we drove past had a sign claiming to be the "World Famous" something or other...but the next day when we got onto the Avenue of the Giants we really were blown away. There are no photos (that I took) that can do it justice, but I'm posting away.



“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.”

-John Steinbeck

Thank you Mr. Steinbeck. We felt it, but I couldn't express it.

I can't 'splain my son.
We hiked all over. The kids climbed, oh, everything. Jonathan took a nasty fall off of one big stump and got scratched up pretty badly, but he is man, and kept his stoic on.

 This is the official tallest tree in the world.
It is world famous, while we were there we met people from Texas, Denmark, and Ireland. So there. Ellie won't look at the camera because she is mad because the whole world isn't revolving around her, darn it!

 This family weekend was about a million times better than if we had stayed home and done what I wanted. Sometimes I wish we were better planners(!), but sometimes being impulsive works out just right.
p.s. I just realized the sweater I'm wearing has been worn by both Maddie and Katie on "ugly sweater day" at their high school. But I make it work.

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Painting A Piano With Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Friday, October 5, 2012

After posting about my family room makeover dreams I actually took a step towards making them come true. I painted the piano peeps! 


My courage to go for it came from a blog I love, Centsational Girl. Here is her post about painting a piano white and her photo that was my inspiration.
Like hers, my piano is older but not an antique. A friend gave it to me when she upgraded to a nicer piano. Frankly, I've thought mine was ugly forever and have had this picture in my inspiration file for ages.
http://www.happylooksgoodonyou.com/i-give-you-the-fabulous-painted-piano/#.UG48S008CSo
I love the blue, but I thought it might just fade into my blue/grey walls. When I saw the white done with Annie Sloan Chalk paint I knew I had a winner.

 Here's my piano before. You can see it's pretty dinged up, not an antique and not a family heirloom; a perfect piece to paint!

AS Chalk Paint was the best option for a couple of reasons, since I couldn't move the piano outside it was great that I didn't have to sand it first, and also that the paint has almost no odor.

 Let's face it, no matter what you're painting, being able to skip the sanding is beautiful. It feels like cheating, but in this case, it works. I was also worried about getting the dust from sanding inside the piano...so that's a legitimate not lazy reason to choose chalk paint.

 Here is a good little trick for when you are in the middle of painting and need to go get kids from school or something. If you don't want to wash your brush and you don't want it to dry out, try wrapping it in a sandwich bag until you get back.

 Okay, so here is the piano after one coat of paint. I used "Old White."

And here is is all done.

I pretty much love Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and I've used it on a bunch of other projects you might want to see, like my dresser. It works great for unusual applications too, like painting tiles, and perhaps my favorite, painting upholstery!
Marc is working on that huge picture of the Oakland LDS Temple. I'm not sure it will end up hanging there after he's finished-it kind of makes that corner look like it should be in a church-but I like it there for now because it keeps it out of the way when he's not working on it.

 ALSO, can you believe I scored that frame at a garage sale for ten bucks? Yay me. Any paint projects going on at your place? 

 (A tiny post edit for the couple of people who have asked, this took less than one quart of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I had maybe a cup left at the end.)




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How I Will Transform My Family Room...Hopefully

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

I'm so so so tired of my family room. Here is how it looks now.


It isn't awful, but it is awfully boring. 

 I know I can't afford to replace my large brown couch. And while I toyed with the idea of making a white slipcover for it, in the end my gut tells me that even though it would be washable my family would smear fish crackers and diet coke and pen and red dirt on it every day and that I would go coo-coo. 

 So I started looking for an inspiration photo that included a brown sofa. Obviously mine isn't a brown leather sofa, but I think I can get the same look. Here is my main inspiration picture.
It keeps the two main elements that I don't want to change, blue walls and a brown coach, and adds the green curtains, white trimmed fire place, and extra decorative elements like the throw pillows, and flowers that I think I can emulate. The family room used to be yellow; I  like the blue better.

 I also want a picture gallery wall. Here's my inspiration photo for that.
Although I want the room to feel more layered and interesting like the first picture, I still want it to feel like a family  room where we can all relax together. After all, snuggling and watching "Once Upon A Time" is one of our favorite things. I think a gallery wall will help with that. I already picked up some white frames the last time I was at IKEA and I'll need to keep an eye out for more.

 So here are my incredibly accurate, architectural quality design mock ups that I made to show you my plans.
I did say silver. It's because I got all excited when I saw this picture of a silver table on Young House Love. I ran out and bought five quarts of silver paint, and then chickened out. Bwack. Now I need to use the paint. Here is a previous effort to fix those bookshelves.
http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/07/house-crashing-style-for-miles/
Good grief, just looking at it makes me want to try it again! Anyway. Back to the family room plans.
I am a beautiful artist, no?
Annie Sloan chalk paint for the piano and maybe turquoise for the dresser?

 Aaaaand here's my rendition of a gallery wall.
Those pillow colors aren't right. I'll be aiming more for the ones in my first inspiration photo.
So there you have it! I have so much elbow grease to apply it's crazy...I better go brush my teeth :)

 Have a great day, friends!

 Post edit...I did get around to doing some of these projects. Take a peek at my gallery wall, painted and styled bookshelves, and painted piano.

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